Equal Parts Vinegar and Water
by Kelly Frock
Summary: A new group comes to the aid of Rick's group as they fight their way out of Terminus.
1. Chapter 1 - Verdict

Chapter 1 – Verdict

The courtroom was silent as the jury made its way back into the room. They sat down in their chairs except for the foreperson that remained standing. Nicole sat in her chair staring at the carved wood on the front of the judge's bench. She shook her head as she realized her fate already before the jury even deliberated.

"Defendant, please rise," ordered the judge. Nicole stood along with her attorneys appointed to her since she could not afford one on her own. "Has the jury reached a verdict?" the judge asked.

"We have, Your Honor," the foreperson stated. Nicole's mother was about the same age as the foreperson, around her mid-forties. The bailiff went to retrieve the verdict to take to the judge. The judge opened the piece of paper and set it down in front of himself.

"Jury, what is your verdict?" he asked.

"We find the defendant guilty of voluntary manslaughter, Your Honor," said the foreperson. Nicole clenched her jaw and tried to hold back the tears. A few fell down her cheeks but she did not sob or wail. It was her fate. She knew it.

"The defendant will be taken into immediate custody. Sentencing will take place in a week's time. Dismissed!" the judge stated and then banged his gavel.


	2. Chapter 2 - Keeping Up

Chapter 2 – Keeping Up

"Coming up on the news at five, more updates on the epidemic that has taken hold of Maryland. Are you in danger or does the government have it under control? Stay tuned," the woman newscaster said before Angelique turned the channel.

"Hey, I was watching that!" Nicole yelled from the side of the room. Angelique looked over.

"Too bad for you. Keeping Up With The Kardashians is on," she said with indifference.

"Oh, you mean the repeats you've been watching. Come on, Angelique, you already know the outcome of this episode. I want to watch the news?" Nicole tried to reason with the inmate.

"What do you think, ladies?" Angelique asked the other woman in the recreation room.

"Fuck the news, man," replied Kim. There was a murmur of agreement with the rest of the women. Angelique looked over at Nicole and shrugged her shoulders.

"Majority vote," Angelique said somewhat apologetically with a smug smile. Nicole shook her head and went to pick up the latest newspaper.

Nicole was never able to watch the news unless Angelique didn't like a particular episode of Keeping Up With the Kardashians. Then, she was able to keep herself informed of what was happening in the world. When she wasn't trying to catch the news on television she was reading the newspaper. One day she would leave this place, be pardoned, and she didn't want to be shell shocked with new inventions and government rule changes.

"Hey, Nicole," a voice said from the side. It was one of the guards, a woman guard named Tracey.

"Hey, Tracey. How are you today?" Nicole said. She had no dissent with any of the guards. They hadn't put her in jail. The guards appreciated her respect. Occasionally, it worked to Nicole's advantage even if that was never her intent.

"I'm good," she said looking around at the other inmates. "I've got the news feed on the laptop if you want to watch it.

"Thanks, Tracey," she said as she sat down in front of the computer.

Nicole watched the news report about the epidemic that had occurred out of Maryland. The tone of the report was deceiving which left a bad impression on Nicole. Had she actually heard they were trying to enclose all of Maryland from the rest of the world? This epidemic, these people, could not be held back and it was spreading, rapidly. The news report said there may be people in Pennsylvania who were bitten and it possibly could have entered into Virginia and Delaware. Anytime the news was vague, Nicole knew they were hiding the true brutal truth. At the end of the broadcast, Nicole saw Tracey slowly close the laptop. She looked over at the guard. She was white as a ghost.

"Tracey, are you okay?" Nicole asked with concern.

"This isn't good, Nicole. It's not good at all," Tracey said. "Some of those shots were not taken in Maryland. They were in South Carolina. I grew up in South Carolina and know exactly where the video was taken. My folks are in danger."

"Hey, on your next break or when you get home today, give them a call. I'm sure they are okay. The news report said the government had a handle on this," Nicole tried to console. Tracey nodded but worry etched itself into the lines of her face. Nicole knew it was a lie. If the bitten people had spread this far south, they were all in danger.

Nicole was also fairly certain it was spreading around the world. There was an article in the newspaper last week of cannibalism in Africa. It was played off as a third world problem. Another article reporting that a little girl in Australia had become rabid after being bitten by a dingo. Again, it was another cover up for this epidemic. No, it was no longer an epidemic; it was a pandemic!


	3. Chapter 3 - Still Alive

Chapter 3 – Still Alive

In the early morning light, Nicole got into the van as Jason manned the gate. Jack sat in the passenger seat. The engine started with a roar. She waved her arm out the window to signal Jason to open the gate. Once she drove the vehicle clear of the fence, he closed and locked it behind her. The two story stone house with black shutters she had just left looked out of place in the suburban neighborhood as she backed out of the driveway and onto the street. A tall wooden fence surrounded it. It was the only house with a fence of that sort. It wasn't an old home, built in the last ten years, if it was that old. Most of the houses on the street were abandoned.

The two who had left the stone house rode down the street towards a small town and down a back road to a small grocery store. As they proceeded, Nicole glanced at the other houses that were dilapidated with overgrown yards and gardens. People walked the streets as if they were walking home from an all-night alcoholic binge. They swayed as they strolled aimlessly. Some dragged a foot behind themselves. Heads were lowered it what seemed like shame. They all had a fight gone terribly wrong look about them, with torn garments, bruised skin, and open wounds. These were not your everyday citizens. They were the dead bodies of people who once occupied the neighborhood and beyond, kept alive by some sort of virus. The walking dead meandered their way around until sound, light, or fresh blood distracted them. The van's engine made some of the walking bodies take notice and turn towards it. Nicole kept the vehicle moving. They were not fast enough to follow for any amount of time but at least for a moment they moved away from the house. She had learned that if her group stayed anywhere for too long, the roamers found out where they were and stalked them by hanging outside the fences they built. It would become too much to kill them all and eventually the roamers would push it over. The fences were built to last but when a large group of the undead wanderers pressed themselves upon it, it wasn't long before it caved. Their current residence was the third house the group had lived in in the past year.

Nicole had found the small supermarket by chance one day on one of her outings. When she noticed it, her immediate thought was that it had been stripped clean already but she took a chance that there might have been something left. To her surprise, half the store was stocked. Her assumption was that it was tucked away down the road so far, only a few people knew about it and couldn't take the entire contents with it. No one had been this way in a long time either. She was sure her group would be the only ones using it. There was no need to grab everything and go. When she came back with Jack the next day, they took a substantial quantity of the canned goods to be on the safe side. Eventually, the noise of carrying the stuff to the van attracted some unwanted attention. They didn't linger.

Now, they had returned for more food and supplies. The winter months were ahead of them. The garden had produced some winter vegetables that needed to be stored. Luckily for them, Tracey's grandmother had taught her how to can. Tracey had already taken care of the summer fruits and vegetables they harvested. They were not sure it would be enough. Nicole stopped the car parallel to the building. This helped in case they had to leave in a hurry; they wouldn't have to back up. Jack looked over at her. They nodded and got out of the van. Nicole approached the door first. Jack put his back towards her looking out to the parking lot and street beyond. They always knew they would draw in some of the roamers because of the vehicle noise. Jack was looking at a half dozen making their way towards them. He raised his gun in their direction.

"Remember, no bullets unless absolutely necessary," Nicole said in a whisper as she inserted the key into the padlock they had put on the door.

"Do you have to remind me every time?" he asked bitterly as he turned slightly towards her.

"I wasn't talking to you," she quipped looking over at him with smirk. "I was reminding myself, but you could use with reminding as well."

She opened the door and went inside. Jack followed her and locked the door from the inside. It wasn't a large grocery store, only slightly bigger than a convenience store, really. There were a number of other things in the store other than groceries. It reminded Nicole of a general store, like the ones seen in movies that depicted the turn of the century.

She grabbed a cart and headed towards a shelf with empty jars used for canning. Looking down at a list, she scanned the shelf. Tracey had written down a few things she would need if the store had it. Nicole picked up two cases of jars, one case of quart and one case of pint sized. Tracey also needed a jar lifter. She had used tongs found in the house last time, but two jars broke because the tongs did not grip well. Luckily for Tracey, Nicole found one. There were other things on the list but they were not in that area.

Nicole moved on to the food area to gather the other things. She grabbed up canned goods, jelly, and peanut butter (that stuff lasted longer than she would have ever thought). The jars of peanut butter looked odd to her. The quantity seemed off. Removing the tag from the front of the shelf, she turned it over. There was a number written on the back of it. It said 12. Looking back at the jars, she counted them. There were only ten left. There shouldn't have been any missing. The lock on the front door wasn't broken. No one from her group came here except for Jack and he was always with her. Either he took it, or someone else had been there. Maybe Jack had taken some while they were here last time and she hadn't noticed. She would question him later. Reaching into her pocket she took out a pen. She crossed out the 12 on the back of the label and wrote a six, then, put four jars of peanut butter into her cart. She went back to her shopping. Each time she took something from the shelf, she changed the number on the back of the pricing labels on the shelf. By the end, peanut butter wasn't the only thing missing. She took the cart to the front of the store where Jack was waiting.

Jack was only there for backup. She would have come alone, but she had tried that once. She ended up not taking much with her that trip. Walkers had swarmed the van as she tried to get a cart of food to it. She left the cart inside and had to battle her way to get into the vehicle. One hand held her pistol and the other a can of peaches as she sat in the driver's seat. No one was happy that day. A magazine of bullets was gone and gas wasted for one can of peaches. She decided she would take someone with her from that point on when she went "shopping." Jack appointed himself when she told them what happened. He came with her every time. She liked it that way. They were the only two who knew where the store was. If things ever went bad between the group, at least they had supplies.

He unlocked the front door and held it open for her. "Ladies first," he always said. Nicole rolled her eyes. She never thought herself much of a lady, especially as she stabbed a roamer with her knife. It dropped to the ground as she turned to lock the door behind her. Jack took up fending off the undead. He hammered two skulls with his pipe wrench as she made her way from the door to the back of the van. Once everything was loaded, she gave the cart a push and let it roll towards the store wall. They quickly got into the van and headed back to the house.

Nicole always went a different way back then when they came to the store. It helped not attract a great number of walkers to their house.

"Did you remember to pick up your supply?" Jack asked giving her a strange dark look.

"My what?" she questioned then remembered what he was referencing. "Oh, that. Yeah, I got 'em." He shook his head with a look of disgust. "Don't give me that! You once needed them too."

"Yeah, but I quit," he said in a deep raspy voice.

"I don't know why?" she jabbed, "It's not like we're going to die of cancer."

"That's not funny," he stated flatly.

She reached into her jacket pocket and pulled out a pack of cigarettes. Tapping the bottom of the pack, one popped up. She offered it to Jack. He turned his head to look out the window. "Suit yourself." She took the cigarette between her lips and lit with a lighter. She cracked her window, but Jack rolled his halfway down. The air was chilly. He visibly shivered. She laughed. He finally gave in to the cold and rolled the window back up.

As Nicole was finishing her cigarette, they noticed a band of walkers around a vehicle on the shoulder of the road. When they passed it, they noticed someone was inside the car.

"Shit!" Nicole said drove the van farther on then pulled it over to the side of the road. Some of the roamers took notice and left that car to go towards the van.

"No way!" Jack yelled.

"Yes, way. Get out of the damn van," Nicole ordered.

"It's only the two of us. We can't take out that many roamers," Jack pointed out.

"Yes, we can. And we are," Nicole stated as she unsheathed her knife.

Jack may have been tall and muscular but his morals kept him from using either to their full potential. She jumped out of the van and threw her spent cigarette on the ground. Slamming the door behind her, it grabbed the attention of some of the biters. Three of them turned towards her. Jack was still in the van watching her in the side mirror shaking his head in disbelief. One advanced on her straight away, the other two wandered just behind. The first was easy to take out. Trying to tackle the other two single handedly was not going to be easy. She kicked at the smaller of the two biters; it used to be a petite woman. It fell to the ground, which gave her the time to jab her knife into the eye socket of the one still standing. Finally, Jack came out of the van seeing other biters turn from the mob surrounding the car with wrench in hand.

Standing side by side, they drew the walkers away from the car. They battled through the horde, Nicole taking out more than Jack did. As she was becoming winded and didn't know whether she could take out another roamer, Jack swung his wrench and the last one fell. Both stood breathing hard as rich dark blood dripped from the weapons and their fingertips.

The driver's car door opened. A dark figure stepped out. A wide-eyed priest with dark skin stood before them.

"I…I…can't believe…you just did that," he stammered placing a hand on his forehead looking around at the dead undead.

"A thank you would be nice," Nicole griped.

"I'm sorry," the priest said quickly. "Thank you. I would have never been able to get out if it hadn't been for you. My prayers were answered." Nicole rolled her eyes.

"You're welcome, Father," Jack said seeing Nicole's expression.

"You need anything else?" Nicole asked. Jack gave her a look to continue that statement. "Father?"

"Well, I have a flat tire," he said pointing to the rear left tire. "It was the reason I had pulled over. I got in my car just in time before I became overwhelmed."

"What did you use to fight them off?" Nicole asked.

"Well, you see, I don't fight them. I don't carry a weapon," he stated.

"What?" Nicole said in disbelief. "How in the hell are you still alive?"

"I've been living in a home," he informed them.

"With other people?" Nicole surmised.

"No, by myself," he answered quietly. Nicole stood there slack jawed staring at him. She had never known anyone to survive on their own and unarmed.

"We need to go, now," Jack chimed in. He was looking off to his right. Nicole followed his gaze.

"Crap," Nicole growled. "All right, Father. We need to go now. You're coming with us."

"I…I…don't…maybe," he stammered.

"Get in the van, now!" Nicole shouted and rushed to the driver's side.

Jack urged the priest towards the van with more finesse than Nicole. She had started the engine as the side door opened and he got in quickly. Jack hopped in the front passenger seat. As soon as she heard the doors shut, she threw the van in gear and pressed on the accelerator. The van sped off leaving the walkers still crawling around the priest's car.

"I'm Jack, by the way," Jack said turning in his seat to look at the priest. "This is Nicole." She glanced in the rear view mirror at him.

"My name is Gabriel," he told them. Nicole snickered. Jack gave her a look. She started coughing instead.

"Sorry, something in my throat," she said.

"Where were you going, Father Gabriel?" Jack asked.

"I was on my way back from a store. I was running low on food," Gabriel answered. "You can call me Gabriel. No need for all the formalities." Jack nodded.

"You're the one!" Nicole spoke. "You took our food."

"I…I didn't take anything of yours. I said I was on my way home from a store. It still had provisions," Gabriel defended.

"We had that place. No one had been in there for months. We had our own lock on the front door. How did you get in?"

"The back storage door was unlocked. It stuck a little but I was able to force it open."

"Damn it! I thought you said all the doors were locked?" Nicole turned her attention to Jack.

"Watch your language," Jack said and nodded towards Gabriel. "I thought they were too. Alex checked that door."

"For Chri…Fu…," Nicole began but Jack kept looking at her sternly. She grimaced the sighed deeply in defeat. "I'll talk to Alex when we get back."

"Are you people from around here?" Father Gabriel asked.

"No, we originated from farther south," Jack professed.

Nicole turned onto the street where their house was. She observed Gabriel looking outside the windows searching the scenery presumably for people he knew. She didn't know how long he had been in that house by himself. It seemed it had been a while. He looked at everything with kid eyes, in bewilderment and awe. When they pulled into the driveway, Jack got out of the car and knocked on the gate. He had to slaughter two walkers as he stood there. Nicole noticed Gabriel turned away from the slaying. Lance was operating the door this time. He was a good-looking dark skinned man with sorrowful eyes. After she pulled the van through the gate, Jack and Lance secured it behind her. Nicole got out of the van; she went to the other side and opened the side door. Father Gabriel was a bit apprehensive to exit the vehicle. When he hesitated, she moved to the rear of the van and started to unload the supplies she and Jack had picked up.

"Who is that?" Tracey asked as Nicole walked onto the front porch.

"Father Gabriel," Nicole said indifferently. Tracey followed Nicole into the house.

"Where did he come from?" Tracey questioned.

"The road," she stated simply.

"What I meant was what area did he come from?" Tracey wondered.

Nicole shrugged. "Where is Alex?"

"He's up in his room," Tracey said.

Nicole set the groceries on the kitchen counter and went to the stairs. Once upstairs, she knocked on the door. A dark haired boy in his late teens answered the door.

"Can I come in?" she asked calmly. He moved away from the door to give her room. Jason was in the room as well. She didn't care. In fact, both of them could use the lecture. "We have a problem." Both men stood up ready for anything. That was good sign, Nicole thought to herself. "Someone want to tell me why we have missing food items from the store? Because I thought both of you locked your assigned doors." Jason's eyes immediately shifted to Alex. Alex's cheeks started turning pink. With a head gesture, Nicole signaled for Jason to leave. Alex stood there chewing on his thumbnail.

"Look, Nicole, I'm really sorry about the door. I thought I had locked it," he immediately defended.

"If you weren't locking the door, what were you doing?" she asked.

"Like I said, I thought I locked the door well enough. Then I went to look at the books and magazines."

"Alex, I know all this isn't easy but we have to make sure everything is secure. We all know how quickly accidents can happen and then turn terrible wrong. Of all of us, I thought you would know that the most considering what happened." He gave her a hateful stare but then it faded into sadness and he nodded. "Come on downstairs. We have a new guest." Nicole patted him on the shoulder and they both went downstairs.


End file.
